At least 11 shot at chicago park

To put it really simple, to reduce violence, we need to elevate people's happiness. Fear and anger are the causes of violence, both of those are
abundant in the world these days, especially in densely populated areas. I also think it is done on purpose, through brainwashing by the media,
videogames, music, etc.

I think so too.. And yet, all of these things are merely tools, much like the gun. When technology is made more open source, we start to see vast
improvements in many sectors including advancement and even job creation. It is a form of wealth distribution, but imo, much more effectively than
the form of "cronyism" that is present in Agenda 21.

We cannot look to our governments to solve the problem though, as the people that make up our governments are a major cause of the problem to
begin with

This is so very true... Many say that a government should represent its people, and in a lot of locations this may or may not apply. However
I have zero doubt that a government does directly represent the stage of its society. Meaning, they are merely products themselves, of a situation we
all take part in creating.

Its always the basics that get lost in our own turmoil and mental mazes, isnt it?

Our society isnt based on any core principles, and I dont mean the constitution/bill of rights/legislation, etc. We really have no long term goals in
how we want to see our society grow. Its more of a "wait until it happens, then we will handle that specific situation" and we see this
attitude almost everywhere from where to put traffic lights to long term economic stability.

I feel that the strength of a society comes from a few things. The first is education, the next is the ability to use that education to advance
society towards an ideal (or jobs), and another important one is considering our actions as part of a larger puzzle. The actions we all take, on a
daily basis, are based in our cultural story. We have never written this "story" consciously, and I think its about time to do so. There are a few
others, but at the risk of posting a lecture, I will leave it there.

There are so many ways to address the main issues ALL of us are facing, and when we, as a society, start to actually pursue the core issues I think we
will find that the solutions are all entertwined in a conscious overhaul of everything from us as individuals to government..

A bit OT, but star for you. I completely agree. There used to be an idea that was America, what the goal was. Good or bad, it seems for the most
part it was achieved, and we are failing to preserve it. There needs to be pro-active motion to mold this country into another American idea. And by
that, I don't mean some think tank, I mean an Idea that citizens in general accept and aspire to see happen.

A bit OT, but star for you. I completely agree. There used to be an idea that was America, what the goal was. Good or bad, it seems for the most
part it was achieved, and we are failing to preserve it. There needs to be pro-active motion to mold this country into another American idea. And by
that, I don't mean some think tank, I mean an Idea that citizens in general accept and aspire to see happen.

See, thats the interesting part.. I consider it a bit off topic as well. However, when I think about objectively, it is merely accepting that this
is an issue and then asking "how do we address this issue?"

This sort of crime is not necessarily new, but when have we, as citizens, addressed the core societal issues rather than the tools used? Societally,
we seem to prefer bandaids to cures.

Perhaps it is a think tank that is needed, but in the form of citizens in general using technology to communicate and pursue goals en masse.

To put it really simple, to reduce violence, we need to elevate people's happiness.

As I said pages ago.

Good paying Jobs would be a start.

There are plenty of good jobs out there, just not enough people with the necessary talent to fill them. I'm tired of hearing about how we need to
'give jobs to people' or 'create' more jobs and everything will be better. You can't GIVE jobs to people or 'create' jobs that fit their (lack
of) skill set, they need to earn them and they aren't willing to do that...or they would have done it already.

I live in the Chicago area and work in the city and I can tell you that nearly all the people living in the ghetto, regardless of skin color, either
don't want a job or have absolutely zero skills. When you can live off public aid and make as much or if not more than a menial, entry level job, who
bother working? I don't blame them I would probably do the same if I was in their position. Why work when you can get it for free?

The real problem is not jobs, or guns, or gangs, or poverty. It's ignorance. It's stupid people having too many babies and raising more stupid
people and creating their own Idiocracy microcosm. I don't think anyone really wants to hear what the real solution to this problem is, as I don't
think we have the stomach for it. We can't change the current generation, they are already too far gone, but we can change the new generation (or
stop them from bearing a new generation). It will require divorcing the new generation from being parented by the old generation to break the cycle of
passing down ignorance from parent to child. It's the only way to really break the cycle, but it's also an inhumane one. I can't imagine that
anything else will work...

After reading five of the eight pages of this thread listening to everyone trying to force their point on the other I see you all getting nowhere.
Having spent my entire 42 years of my life in crook county Illinois, CHOOSING not to be a part off the criminal element here . My life has been
extremely hard for the fact of that I lost my drivers license for duis I got back in my twenties when I was a bartender. For the last twenty years I
have not been able to afford the cost of having my drivers license reinstated even though I have been eligible to have it reinstated for approximately
15 years now. I have had other family responsibilities that had to be taken care of first, my drivers license comes after the needs of my other
responsibilities. Now at this point your probably asking what does it have to do with crime in Chicago? Let me explain, I could have earned much more
money if I had not lost my drivers license , and had a much better life, had I not lost my drivers license . The single most important thing I learned
over the years is that it was my fault, it was my choice to make the stupid mistake of having a few beers after I got off work then driving home. For
the sake of argument, when these things happened state law was .10, me, busted at .12 , approximately half of a beer has cost me tens of thousands of
dollars over the last twenty years . Finally after having lost so much and spent the last fifteen or twenty years of my life trying to recover from my
stupid mistakes I'm still a million miles away. The point is that once you have made a stupid mistake like this you can still CHOOSE to make those
mistakes or you can CHOOSE to change your decision making process and better yourself, but what does that have to do with gun violence Don , I'll tell
you , you can do as I did, you can live surrounded by criminals everywhere you look , crooked cops crooked criminals crooked politicians and crooked
family members . Just because you live in a place where everything and everyone you know is crooked does not mean that you yourself does not have a
choice, because you do have a choice, I am living proof that even under the most difficult circumstances,after having made stupid mistakes that a
person can say to themself this is crazy and I don't want to live like that. It is also possible for that person to choose to live an honorable and
respectable life, even through the most judgemental ( my ) eyes. ALL OF CRIME IS A CHOICE and it does not matter if you live right in the middle of
it , you do have the CHOICE to be one of them or to not be one of them. STOP BLAMING THE GUNS , IT IS NOT THE GUN, IT'S THE CRIMINAL BEHIND THE GUN.
more gun laws will not fix this rounding up the criminals and putting them in prison or WORSE is the only solution they are CHOOSING the criminal way
because they are to selfish and lazy to do it the right way.

One of the points I'm trying to get across its that if you don't live in the middle of this like I do you probably don't understand what it's like
here, I have lived here all my life and watched all of this unfold throughout my life and you can't criticize the situation even with my experience
without someone saying your racist or something of that nature , I see people like father phleger on the news saying that it's because people don't
have jobs , that's bs , I see the president criticize people for what they do but won't criticize people in his own neighborhood, I see people
criticize each other on here but not one of them oft even one idea too solve the problem, I'm sorry but I probably should have stated my own thread
and put it in rants , but I get upset when I see people pointing fingers in the wrong direction like I said in my original post I am very judgemental
in these situations because I live in the middle of it, and I believe in a very harsh solution to solve it.everybody that lives around here knows what
is going on in this city during late night, even the people who got shot that night are going on the news openly admitting their involvement in gang
activity but then they complain that nothing is being done about it when they need to face the reality that they at fault here, and they refuse to
face the reality as stated in my original post is that the solution lies with themselves they need to change and they refuse to do so so why should
anyone even give a damn what is happening to them they want the rest of the world to care about them when they don't even care about themselves, so
when I see them crying on the news about the tragedies in their neighborhoods, now I just change the channel and say they are getting what they
deserve, oh and by the way what was a three year old doing out in the middle of the night when everybody knows that the drug dealers and gangbangers
are the only thing out on the streets at that time of night I'm disgusted and fed up at the way things are here, but can't leave because that would
mean leaving certain family and loved one's behind and I can't leave my loved ones behind like that

Ignorance, yes it's a big part of it. For example: When you really go and break it down, unless you are a main supplier, being a drug dealer works
out to to be less than working a minimum wage job. The only people making any real money off drugs, are the ones bringing it into the country in large
amounts.

Show me something that isn't "Journalism" but rather police data, FBI data, something that is actually a societal indicator rather than a piece of
journalism that by its very nature tries to persuade rather than inform.

You have been so very well programmed.

We had a call from city officials to stop the gun shows in this county. They were making the case that the city gun violence could be traced to these
gun shows.

But when asked to show hard data per crime with firearm use they had no data! They were just running off at the mouth per the progressive anti gun
bender. Cant expect much more than that from a party that wont even read a health care bill before passing it.

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